Lord Swinfen: The noble Baroness is castigating the Government for the way that developers are building residential accommodation. Should she not be castigating developers for not thinking about how much longer their residential property could be used if it were properly designed in the first place? The Building Regulations are there, so developers need to produce answers not just the Government.
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, are there not already regulations about the overcrowding of buildings? I am sure that there are also regulations covering the sharing of bedrooms, particularly between young people. I think I am right in saying that under the age of 12, children of opposite sexes can share the same bedroom, but it is deemed undesirable beyond that age. In certain dwellings it is sometimes...
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, what effect has immigration had on the supply of affordable housing?
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, what is the estimated saving to Her Majesty’s Government of pensioners living abroad not using the National Health Service and other government services?
Lord Swinfen: My Lords—
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, what is being done by the Government to help Kent and Dover, in particular, to deal with the large number of unaccompanied minors arriving in the country?
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, the idea behind the amendment is estimable but purely to do with the environment. The Bank of England is purely to do with finance and I do not think that the two would make happy bedfellows. We should be able to find a better home for the Green Investment Bank than the Bank of England.
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, is there a maximum number of cars allowed to each diplomatic mission, or does this measure apply to all cars, some missions being bigger than others?
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, how many cases have been referred to the police or other investigative organisations to be looked into?
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, is part of the problem due to the specialisation of nurses? Are far too many of them being trained only as specialists so that they are therefore unable to be moved from one part of a hospital to another? Would more general training be better?
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, after the reports in the news today that the Russians are providing the Argentineans with military equipment, will the Government undertake a fresh review?
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Corston, mentioned that in her erstwhile constituency some people might have to take two buses to get to the polling station. In many rural areas and hamlets there is often only one bus out and one back. In some places, there are only a couple of buses a week in each direction. I am therefore a strong supporter of the amendment.
Lord Swinfen: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to assess the impact of the process of obtaining Dispensing Appliance Contractor licences on the Department of Health’s wish to increase medical innovation, as outlined in their Innovation Health and Wealth strategy. To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to assess the impact of the process of obtaining Dispensing...
Lord Swinfen: I am sorry; I did not hear what the noble Lord said.
Lord Swinfen: I have only a very short while to go. I have no problem with codes of practice and I would expect that, if the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, or a similar amendment is accepted, there will be a need for detailed procedures to be included in codes of practice to give effect to it. We cannot in this House agree to legalise assistance with suicide simply on the basis...
Lord Swinfen: I support the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, on her Amendment 71. Given the gravity of the decision to end one’s life, ensuring that a person requesting assisted death has the capacity to make this decision is of fundamental importance, yet the Assisted Dying Bill raises serious concerns about how decision-making capacity will be determined. Furthermore, I think that the Bill is inaccurate...
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, what consideration is being given to the expansion of Manston Airport, which has good rail and road communications with London and could easily mop up a lot of the unemployment on the Isle of Thanet?
Lord Swinfen: My Lords, there appears to be far more abuse of children today than there was 30 or 40 years ago. Is it known why?
Lord Swinfen: I am not sure that I heard my noble friend correctly but he talked about child cruelty when someone was, first, in possession of drugs and, secondly, under the influence of drugs. I understood him to say that they were actually under the influence of the drugs of which they were charged with being in possession. Purely for clarification, what is the position if they are in fact under the...
Lord Swinfen: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to reduce the amount of pesticides in bread.
